Carotenoids are a family of chemical compounds that occur naturally in plants and animals. Non-exhaustive examples of carotenoids are beta-carotene, alpha-carotene, gamma-carotene, lycopene, zeaxanthin, capsanthin and lutein. Each natural source of carotenoids has a distinct array of different carotenoids. For example, it is known that algae contains a mixture of alpha, beta and gamma carotene.
Carotenoids have significant health benefits. For example, beta-carotene is a pre-cursor to Vitamin A, a vital nutrient for human beings and it has been suggested that beta-carotene inhibits heart disease and cancer. Consequently, many people wish to maximize their carotenoid intake. Fruits and vegetables are a desired source of carotenoids because of their nutritional value, cost and availability. Unfortunately, the amount of carotenoids present in natural sources is so small that an inordinate amount of fruits and vegetables would have to be digested to obtain a desired amount of carotenoids.
Thus, methods have been devised to extract and concentrate beta-carotene from various sources. U.S. Pat. No. 5,310,554 to Haigh describes a method for making high-purity natural beta-carotene by extracting algae with organic solvents and chromatographing the extract on a column of alumina. U.S. Pat. No. 4,680,314 to Nonomura describes a method for purifying beta-carotene by extracting algae with an edible oil.
In addition, several manufacturers have attempted to synthetically manufacture beta-carotene. For example, Hoffmann La Roche, a Swiss pharmaceutical and chemical company, manufactures synthetic all-trans-beta-carotene. Synthetic carotenoid compounds, however, almost exclusively contain a specific conformation of a particular carotenoid and contain only trace amounts of other carotenoids or other conformations of the particular carotenoid.
These carotenoid products are either derived synthetically or derived from a single source and fail to provide a balanced supply of carotenoids. Because these products contain a very narrow range of carotenoids, the benefits are commensurately narrow. Each carotenoid, and individual isomers and conformations thereof, possesses unique and distinctive characteristics and benefits. Not all of the benefits associated with each carotenoid are known or understood. Moreover, the exact amount and type of carotenoids present in the individual sources is not always known. As a result, the known carotenoid products are not able to provide each of the benefits, known and unknown, associated with the many different carotenoids.
Consequently, there is a need for a carotenoid product that is able to provide a comprehensive regimen consisting of a wide variety of different carotenoids.